That, if fuch numbers can o'er time prevail,
May tell pofterity the wondrous tale.

Gods may

When actions, unadorn'd, are faint and weak,
Cities and countries must be taught to speak :
defcend in fictions from the fkies,
And rivers from their oozy beds arife;
Fiction may deck the truth with fpurious rays,
And round the hero call a borrow'd blaze.
Marlborough's exploits appear divinely bright,
And proudly fhine in their own native light:
Rais'd of themfelves, their genuine charms they boast ;
And thofe who paint them trueft, praise them moft.

A

ON BRIBERY.

Poor man once a Judge befought

To judge aright his caufe;

And with a pot of oil falutes

This judger of the laws.

My friend, quoth he, thy caufe is good ;i
He glad away did trudge:

Anon his wealthy foe did come
Before this partial Judge.

A hog well fed this churl prefents,
And craves a train of law;
The hog receiv'd, the poor man's right
Was judg'd not worth a straw.

Therewith he cried, O partial judge,
Thy doom has me undone;

When oil I gave, my cause was good,
But now to ruin run,

Poor man, quoth he, I thee forgot,
And lee thy caufe of foil;

A hog came fince into my houfe,
And broke thy pot of oil.

THE

S H

HIP W R E C K,

By WILLIAM FALCONER.

CANTO I.

ARGUMENT.

PROPOSAL of the Subject-Invocation-ApologyAllegorical Defcription of Memory-Appeal to her Ailiftance-The Story begun-Retrofpect of the former Part of the Voyage-The Ship arrives at CandiaAncient State of that Island-Prefent State of the adjacent Ifles of Greece-The Seafon of the YearCharacter of the Mafter and his Officers-Story of Palemon and Anna-Evening defcribed-MidnightThe Ship weighs Anchor and departs from the Haven

State of the Weather-Morning-Situation of the neighbouring Shores-Operation of taking the Sun's. Azimuth-Defcription of the Veffel as feen from the

Land.

The fcene is near the city of Candia; and the time about four days and a half.

The fcene of the Second Canto lies in the fea, between Cape Frefchin, in Candia, and the Ifland of Falconera, which is nearly twelve leagues northward of Cape Spada. -The time is from nine in the morning till one o'clock of the following morning.

And fright the paleful vale with dire alarms;
While ocean hears vindictive thunder roll
Along his trembling wave, from pole to pole:
Sick of the scene, where war, with ruthlefs hand.
Spreads defolation o'er the bleeding land;

B.2.

Sick 1

No

pomp

Sick of the tumult, where the trumpet's breath
Bids ruin fimile, and drown the groans of death!
Tis mine, retir'd beneath this cavern hoar
That ftands all lonely on the fea-beat hore,
Far other themes of deep diftrefs to fing
Than ever trembled from the vocal ftring.
of battle fwells th'exalted flrain,
Nor gleaming arms ring dreadful on the plain:
But, o'er the fcene while pale remembrance weeps,
Fate with fell triumph, rides upon the deeps.
Here hoftile elements tumultuous rife,
And lawless floods rebel against the fkies;
Till hope expires, and peril and difinay
Wave their black enfigns on the watery way.

Immortal train who guide the maze of song,
To whom all science, arts and arms belong;
Who bid the trumpet of eternal fame
Exalt the warrior's and the poet's name!
Ife'er with trembling hope I fondly fray'd,
In life's fair morn beneath your hallow'd fhade,..
To hear the fweetly-mournful lute complain,
And melt the heart with ecitacy of pain;
Or liften, while the enchanting voice of love,
While all Elyfium warbled thro' the grove;
Oh! by the hollow blaft that moans around,
That fweeps the mild harp with a plaintive found;
By the long furge that foams thro' yonder cave,
Whofe vaults remurmer to the roaring wave;
With living colours give my verse to glow,
The fad memorial of a tale of woe!
A fcene from dumb oblivion to restore,
To fame unknown, and new to epic lore!
Alas! neglected by the facred Nine,
Their fuppliant fee's no genial ray divine!
Ah! will they leave Pieria's happy fhore,
To plow the tide where wintry tempefts roar
Or hall a youth approach their hallow'd fane,
Stranger to Phœbus, and the tuneful train !

Far

Far from the mufe's academic grove,
'Twas his the vaft and tractlefs deep to rove..
Alternate change of climates has he known,.
And felt the fierce extremes of either zone:
Where polar fkies congeal th' eternal fnow,
Or equinoctial funs for ever glow..

roar.

Smote by the freezing or the fcorching blaft,
"A fhip-boy on the high and giddy maft"."
From regions
where Peruvian billows
To the bleak coafts of favage Labrador,
From where Damafcus, pride of Afian plains!
Stoops her proud neck beneath tyrannic chains,
To where the Ifthmus + laved by adverfe tides,
Atlantic and Pacific feas divides.

But while he meafur'd o'er the painful race,
In fortune's wild illimitable chace,
Adverfity, companion of his way!

Still o'er the victim hung with iron fway;
Bade new diftreffes every inftant grow,

Marking each change of place with change of woe..
In regions where the Almighty's chaftening hand
With livid peftilence afflicts the land:

Or where pale famine blafts the hopeful year,
Parent of want and mifery fevere!

Or where all dreadful in th' embattl❜d line,
The hoftile fhips in flaming combat join:
Where the torn veffel wind and waves affail.
Till o'er her crew diftrefs and death prevail.
Where'er he wander'd, thus vindictive fate
Purfu'd his weary fteps with lafting hate!
Rous'd by her mandate, forms of black array:
Winter'd the morn of life's advancing day;
Relax'd the finews of the living lyre,
And quench'd the kindling spark of vital fire..
Thus while forgotten, or unknown he woos,
What hope to win the coy, reluctant Mufe!
Then let not cenfure, with malignant joy,
The harveft of his humble hope destroy !.

Shakespeare.

B 3

+ Darien

His

His verfe no laurel wreath attempts to claimgres? A5
Nor fculptur'd brafs to tell the poet's name. #pe
If terms uncouth, and jarring phrases, wound
The fofter fenfe with inharmonious found,
Yet here let liflening sympathy prevail,
While conscious truth unfolds her piteous tale !

And lo! the power that wakes th eventful fong,
Haftes hither from Lethean banks along;
She fweeps the gloom, and rufhing on the fight,
Spreads o'er the kindling fcene propitious light
In her right hand an ample roll appears,
Fraught with long annals of preceding years,
With every wife and noble art of man,
Since first the circling hours their course began:
Her left a filver wand on high difplay'd,
Whofe magic touch difpel's oblivion's fhade,
Pensive her look; on radiant wings that glow,
Like Juno's bird, or Iris' flaming bow,
She fails; and fwifter than the course of light
Directs her rapid intellectual flight.

The fugitive ideas fhe reflores,

And calls the wand'ring thought from Lethe's fhores.
To things long paft a fecond date the gives.

And hoary time from her fresh youth receives.

Congenial fifter of immortal fame,

She fhares her power, and Mem'ry is her name.

O firft-born daughter of primeval time!
By whom tranfmitted down in every clime,
The deeds of ages long elaps'd are known,
And blazon'd glories fpread from zone to zone;
Whofe breath diffolves the gloom of mental night,
And o'er th' obfcur'd idea pours the light!
Whofe wing unerring glides thro' time and place,
And traftlefs foars the immenfity of space!
Say on what feas, for thou alone cant tell,
What dire mishap a fated fhip befell,
Affa I'd by tempefts, girt with hoftile fhores ?
Arife! approach! unlock thy treafur'd stores !